


The path less travelled

by Brynnen, TwaCorbies (Brynnen)



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BaME character, Gen, Pep Talk, Stephen Mopes, mentor, seeking a second opinion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-17 05:37:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13070244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brynnen/pseuds/Brynnen, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brynnen/pseuds/TwaCorbies
Summary: After the accident Stephen turns to yet another expert and the narrative of his recovery gets turned on its head.





	The path less travelled

Stephen turned away from the pointedly closed door and back to his laptop. He had to find a treatment, or losing her would have been for nothing and desperate times called for desperate measures. He scrolled through his contacts like all the way down to Pundari, Lakshmi. If anyone knew of an effective trial, she would.

His mouth twisted in distaste as he clicked on the 'call' icon. His pride tasted bitter on his tongue as he swallowed it down like bile.

'Do you know what the bloody time is?' A dishevelled head and shoulders settled in front of the camera and Stephen suddenly remembered she'd left the US a couple years ago to work in her native city of Oxford.

'Half three am local time?' He calculated, taking in the epic bed-head and the pyjamas decorated with a pattern of sleeping Eeyores.

'Right, so it'd better be important for you to need to renew our acquaintance after all these years at this ungodly hour.' She'd be in her seventies now and the woman still had the power to make him remember the fear and awe she'd inspired in him as an intern.

He held up his hands to the camera, letting her see the scars and tremor. 'I need to get onto a trial that will make a difference to this.' Her dark eyes were hard, analytical as she examined his hands and guessed the varying ages of the layered scars on the backs of them.

'Huh, you've been to Tayaka and Bruch already then? You must be desperate to call me, an old hack blinded by her own assumptions, eh?' Stephen flushed in anger and embarrassment as she quoted his last words to her back at him.

'Yeah. I am.'

'Why?' She'd never been one to waste words.

He huffed, a short, angry exhalation. 'I'm a goddam surgeon who can't operate! Why do you think I'm clutching at fucking straws here?'

She shook her head. 'You're a doctor who can't do surgery. You're a fool, wasting his time, intellect, energy and money chasing a dream medical science can't deliver yet and neglecting his duty.' Her voice was blunt, calmly dressing him down as she had so often during his neuro rotation.

'You're a scientist, you know what can and can't be done so why are you signing up to trials that we both know aren't advanced enough to be effective?' Her head suddenly twitched, settling into a persistent wobble atop her spinal column.

'You can still see and treat patients with a tremor, your brain still presumably works, although your going to Bruch rather makes me doubt it, so move into a new stage of your career.'

'As easy as that?' Stephen felt incredulity and anger at her absurd simplification of the matter.

'Yes.' She shrugged. 'Ockham's Razor. There's nothing out there that can fix your hands yet, so instead of moping about like a big ninny get off your arse and do something! Switch to research, change speciality, heck, become a GP! You were a damn good doctor as well as a surgeon. Don't let it go to waste just because you've had a setback.'

'What did you move into when the Parkinson's became apparent?'

'Geriatric care. Multiple comorbidities, complex drug interactions, managing people and their interactions with both the health and social care systems - what's not to love? I may have Parkinson's, but it's just an illness I have, not a set of handcuffs that leave me a prisoner to it.' She shrugged, whatever bitterness the neurologist might have felt about being struck down with one of the very afflictions she specialised in treating long since gone.

Stephen stared at her for a long moment, Lakshmi returning it with a dark, pixelly stare that mixed self-assurance and challenge into that one expression that had always pissed him off. This time he cracked an almost rueful smile at her.

'I stand by that last review, you're still an asshole; but you might just be right, Dr Pundari.'

'Show me what you're made of, Strange. I want to be impressed.'

With that she ended the call and Stephen sighed, letting go of a few old grudges. 'Me too, Pundari. Me too.'

**Author's Note:**

> Movie doctors and actual doctors do things very differently. I guess counselling might have been offered and refused, but really most of the medical professionals shown or implied in this movie probably need some remedial ethics training. Seriously, the guy suffered an horrific, disabling set of injuries and yet he's able to sign up to all these medical trials? Only the physiotherapist seems to be working within the new reality, until he starts talking about magic, knowing Strange would literally sell the shirt off his back for a cure.
> 
> Why are you all so keen to watch a man who (in his own mind) has lost the only thing that made his life worth living destroy himself and potentially do irreparable damage to his remaining nerve function by putting himself through multiple unproven surgeries. I can understand Strange being unable to logically evaluate the risks, but a scientist wanting to test their theories would surely want test subjects with less comprehensive nerve damage to use as proof of concept...


End file.
